Until Wednesday, when we got ushered (ha) around the city in a Ministry of Education vehicle. The first place we went was a market in Katatora. Kaylan, our in country field-director, put the 14 of us into pairs, gave us a word in Oshiwambo and told us to go ask people in the market what it meant. My word was oshifima, which we found out is like porridge made from a certain type of grain. The thing that struck me most was how approachable the people are here. Having a foreigner come up to you and ask a hundred questions seems almost uninviting in the US, but here everyone was happy to educate us on their country and culture. Namibians remind me of Haitians in this sense.
Afterwards, we drove to another neighborhood called Havana. Neighborhood may be the wrong word...maybe part of town. I say that because Havana is hundreds of tin houses that go for a couple miles off the main road. We were told that despite the shanty-like conditions, Havana functions like any normal town; it had a school, many businesses, bars, etc. We then drove to a dam in Havana, and had lunch by the reservoir. It was the first time I have seen a body of water in the Namibia that isn't a swimming pool.
The days are pretty long, mostly filled with teacher training, we've also had some sessions on culture and language instruction. I'm learning Oshikwanyama which is one of nine dialects of the Oshiwambo language, one of the most spoken in the country. I'm really excited to get north and start speaking it in my town.
On Sunday we leave for the north for a week of teaching practice and a game drive in Etosha, a pretty big game park.
The internet situation is pretty nice here. While it isn't the fastest internet in the world, it's free and available in most of the hostel. When I move to Omungwelume this will not be the case, but we'll have to see.
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| Back Packers Unite |
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| Havana |
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